Malachi 1:1

Malachi 1:1 says, The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.  This message to Israel given to Malachi to present to them was referred to as the burden of the word of the LORD.  God's word can be a burden to those who do not accept it, because it will call them to repent of their sins and put God above everything else.  God's word can also be a burden to those who accept it, because it requires them to share in the responsibility of reaching out to the lost people of the world with God's message of salvation, but it will be a light burden, because they Holy Spirit helps them bear it.  This message was for Israel, God's chosen people, and I believe because of their rebellion against God, they had become a burden to Him.  Verse two adds, I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,  God said that He had loved the people of Israel, but that they questioned when and how He had loved them.  They gave the example of Esau and Jacob, asking if Esau was not Jacob’s brother, but saying that God loved Jacob and not Esau.  Their contention was that God's love was arbitrary, but God loved Esau just as much as He loved Jacob.  Esau just did not love God.  If we suffer God's punishment, it will not be because God does not love us or loves someone else more.  God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for the sins of everyone, not just certain people, and He did so out of love for each person.  Verse three continues, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.  God's chosen people placed the blame for what happened to Esau on God, and not on Esau himself because of his attitude toward God.  This is the same argument people use today when they rhetorically ask how a loving God can send people to hell.  God has done everything possible to keep people from going to hell if they accept His salvation, but as with Esau the choice is theirs whether or not to put their faith in God.  Verse four states, Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.  God said that the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, said that even though they were impoverished that they would return and rebuild cities in the desolate places.  They did not say that God would do this through them, but that they would do it without God's help.  We may think that we can accomplish great things without God today, but just as God told the Edomites, what we build or accomplish without Him will be torn down by Him.  Verse five adds, And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.  God said that they would see His work in Israel and that He would be magnified.  As followers of Christ today, whatever we do should magnify or glorify God and never be done to magnify or glorify ourselves.